Stick a fork in it

Month: August 2008

Fish is such a tricky little bugger to grill. Sure you can pouch it or wrap it in banana leaves or parchment or bacon, but how is that different from cooking on the stove? So we here at Girl On Grill Action decided to stick the whole damn trout on the grill and see what happened. Grillmaster Adie, a recovering vegetarian, stepped right up to handle the slithery, slimy beast. Sure she was apprehensive. Sure she was wondering if this was such a good idea. After she shoved lemon, fresh herbs and a wee bit of salt and pepper (pah push it) in its belly, her concerns were off having a drink at the pub. As she walked the little monster to the hot grill, she was reminded of the crush she had on the drummer of Lake Trout. So many drummers, so little time. The trout (fish) was popped on the grill and grilled for awhile and then simply flipped for symmetry. The fish came out perfect with all the juicy oils still intact. This trout business will not dry out on the grill. She flaked some big chunks on the plate over a little puddle of pesto. A few cucumber spears and some overcooked broccoli and you’ve got yourself some gourmay-I-have-some-more-please shit. Also noted was the wow factor bringing trout on the road. Bring an entire fish, eyeballs and all to a labor day barbeque and looky whose going to be Ms. Popular. We loved the trout, much better than Cats, we’d do it again and again.

Grilling broccoli is not easy. Broccoli doesn’t jump to your mind when you’re thinking veggies on a stick. Sticks are usually adorned with peppers, onions, zucchini and things that get all juicy when the heat is on. Broccoli carries fears of catching fire. So, Adie decided to pouch it. She did two pouches. One was dressed with extra virgin olive oil, crushed garlic, salt and pepper over the broccoli. The other had the same but with a little water added. Both were pouched into a beautiful swan to impress the guests. The swan had a little head big body thing going on, but no shame for trying. When making broccoli pouch swans remember to be liberal with the tin foil. As a result, the pouches did their thing and the one with water added came out superior. Also, it doesn’t take long to grill, so don’t put it on first or it’ll get a muted green trending brown color ( thus no photo of finished result ). You want to go for a perky green when cooking broccoli, which doesn’t take long to achieve.

Hillary from Arkansas popped over to take over the grill. She mustered up some hot dogs quick as – how do they say – fly on dung … needless to say ( another popular southern phrase ) the wieners were tasty! Hillary used wieners from Bavarian Meats available at the Pike Street Market in downtown Seattle. These wieners are the best. And if your German is up to snuff, you can practice with the ladies of the Bavarian Meat Shop while you pick up some wieners and other lovely meat products. They even have Kinder Eggs! This was the perfect meal with the right sort of effort for a hungry geologist who’s been out in the field all day playing, ahem, analyzing mud and rock. Geology, it rocks. The only thing missing is some home brewed Sweet Ice Tea and a little watermelon to round things off.

Adie popped by taking the kitchen by storm pulling desirables that when moistened with liquor would make Sangria like no other. Sangria so refreshing that as she sat next to the pool with the breeze blowing through her hair an easy smile happily resting on her face, Seattle’s hottest day of the year went unnoticed. A bottle of wine emptied, most of a bottle of Pellegrino some sliced lemons and clementines popped in and it’s off to puree some succulently ripe mango. This was the magic ingredient. A splash or so of white rum with a sizzle of sugar readied the mix for tasting. A bit more sugar says Adie. After the mix partied with the ice, it was poured into the pretty, party pitcher and garnished with fresh mint. You don’t want to over mint. Too much mint takes all the fun out of Sangria trending to Mojitoland and for that matter all this talk about Sangria when what we’ve actually made was August Punch, but who’s checking. One girl’s Sangria is another girl’s Punch. For this girl, the punch was in the beautiful Anam Cara Riesling. Lacking a dryer wine at peep toe pumps reach and no desire to pop up to the shops, we pulled out the Riesling to give ‘er a go. It went well. The Sangrian August Punch was light, refreshing ( I know I said that already ), not sweet and not too alcoholic tasting. PERFECTO for a hot summer day. Adie girl, you done good.

She ended up using:

Clementines

Lemons

Ripe Champagne Mango pureed in a Champion (the one that looks like a pig)

Ms. Hillary from Arkansass says, “heck ya and I’m fixin’ to have some more.” Quite simple really, cut the watermelon, pop some salt on top and chomp away. So busy taking photos, I didn’t even try it! I need to do another round to add my two cents. I’m going into to it with a Yuk verdict, but I’ll keep an open mind. Perhaps giving the watermelon a little tequila bath before the salt might sway me to the other side.